


Than to Love Me

by Theoroark



Series: Nobody's Fault [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Platonic Relationships, Families of Choice, Gen, Immediately Post-Retribution, Team as Family, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 14:33:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14380647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: After Venice, Ana wanted nothing more than for everything between them to go back to normal. But it didn't.





	Than to Love Me

Even if Blackwatch were suspended, Overwatch's activities would continue as normal, Jack said. Gabriel had agreed and Ana had been relieved. She wanted nothing more than for everything to go back to normal. But it didn't.

They tried, the next morning. They met in the break room for breakfast, like usual. Ana only drank tea and Gabriel swore by pour-over coffee, so they would boil a kettle together and talk about the previous day and the upcoming one. That morning the former topic was fraught. But they still tried.

"I hope you at least enjoyed Venice," Ana said. She kept her tone light but Gabriel's eyes still flashed before he saw her smile. Then he forced one of his own.

"It was pretty," he said. "I didn't think I'd ever get to see it, too. Thought it'd be underwater by now."

"Me too," Ana said. She stirred her tea. "Did you four take a gondola ride to Antonio's?"

"Christ, gondola driver. That's what we should have had Jesse doing," Gabriel whispered. Ana laughed.

"I can't imagine him as a waiter."

"I mean, I thought it'd work out. You know him. Quick on his feet and never forgets his manners. But I forgot how annoyed he gets when other people forget theirs." He shook his head. "Total waste of pasta, too."

"God." She took a sip of tea, smiling. "It'll make you appreciate this job, I suppose."

Gabriel's face darkened. "You'd think. But..."

"What?"

Gabriel looked down at his coffee. "Nothing," he said, and the illusion broke. That shit lie reminded her of Gabriel's stony face in the debrief, lying with the confidence of a man who knew he was fooling no one, but knew he would never tell the truth. It reminded her of McCree's robotic compliance and non-answers under Gabriel's heavy glare. It reminded her of slamming her fist on the table, reminding Gabriel that they were a team, that they couldn't function if they didn't trust each other, and Gabriel looking her in the eye and telling her, "I did what I had to. If you trust me, that should be enough."

It wasn't. She drank her tea and he drank his coffee in awkward silence, and then they left the break room. He went to Blackwatch's wing of the HQ and she headed to Jack's office.

That was where she saw him next, a couple days later. The news coverage of Blackwatch had exploded. Multiple countries hosting Overwatch facilities were demanding they be shut down. Ana could see Overwatch's end so easily.

If Gabriel could, it did not seem to bother him. "We don't need to pull out of Italy right away," he said. Both her and Jack looked at him, completely baffled, and he rolled his eyes. "You think people there liked Antonio? You think him turning a city into a war zone won him the love and respect of the populace? You ask any person on the street, and I'm sure they'll say they're glad we took him out."

"Antonio's friends in the government wouldn't say the same," Jack pointed out. "And Vialli's inherited a well-oiled machine."

Gabe shrugged and spun his pen on Jack's desk. "I'm just saying. The public will support us."

 _Support me_ , was left unspoken. Jack rubbed his chin. "You could be right," he said. "I can't imagine they're thrilled with corruption. Maybe if we frame it like that–"

"I don't know if you were aware, Gabriel," Ana cut in. "But foreigners meddling in a country's affairs is rarely popular among the native population. I don't know if you got all your international relations techniques from the Cold War-era CIA, but you should probably flip forward a few pages and see how well that turned out for them."

Both men stared at her, and she sat in the frustrated anger of an indirect fight. After a moment, Gabriel spoke up, his face and voice that same stony neutral that they were during the debrief.

"I went on that mission to protect Overwatch agents," he said. "I wasn't thinking about any larger goal."

Jack slumped in his chair and Gabriel looked worried for a second before returning to neutrality.

"You should think more, then," Ana said acidly.

"Noted," Gabriel said, then he pushed out of his chair and walked out of Jack's office.

McCree found her later that day in the range. He didn't practice so much with her anymore, but like her, being good at something relaxed him. Today though, he seemed just as uneasy as she was.

"You talk to him?" he asked. She kept her eyes fixed on the target.

"It's fine, McCree." She heard him sigh.

"He's even more pissed than he was before. And I'm not going to touch him and the Strike Commander, but you're reasonable. And if he doesn't have one of you around, he's liable to do something even dumber."

Ana set the gun down with more force than she meant and turned to McCree. "I'm not his mother," she spat, and instantly regretted it. McCree looked afraid. He hadn't seemed happy with Gabriel in the debriefing, but he had held the line. He had been here for twelve years, since he was a child. He didn't have any family left, didn't have any formal education, couldn't hold down a job waiting tables. This was all he knew. This was the nightmare she had had while trying to rock Fareeha to sleep over the distant sound of bombs. She slipped up too, saw him as family sometimes instead of as a soldier.

And wasn't it just like Gabriel, to take the ram in the bush and treat it like the son.

"It'll be fine, Jesse," she said. He didn't look convinced. She walked over and put her hands on his shoulders. "I'll talk to him."

The past few days, she had been making her tea in her quarters. Today, though, she got to the break room early and started to boil a large kettle. Gabriel walked in soon afterwards, and stopped in the doorway.

"Oh," he said. "I didn't know you were up."

"Indeed," she said. Gabriel walked slowly over to the counter and poured his grounds in the filter. They both watched the kettle.

"We need to talk," Ana said, and he sighed.

"I don't know what you want from me, Ana."

"Sure you do," she said, because he had to. It's not like she hadn't been clear. "I want you to be honest with me."

"I don't think you do," Gabriel said steadily. "Because every time I try, you jump down my throat."

The kettle started to steam. Ana rubbed her face. "I don't know what _you_ want from _me_ ," she said. "I'm not not going to be angry with you about this. You lied to us. You jeopardized everything we worked for."

"Blackwatch has done more legwork than Overwatch ever has. You may not like our methods, but you've been happy taking our results. We did this for Overwatch."

"Bullshit, Gabriel." The kettle was shrilling now and she pulled it off the burner and glared into her mug as she poured. "You did this because you were pissed about Gerard, about everyone in that building–"

"I saw to their damn caskets Ana, of course I was–"

"And I saw to their damn families, don't you dare make this into some pissing contest!" She wheeled to face him and he did seem remorseful, but now that she had started she couldn't stop. "Jack told me, he asked you, will this help us keep the world safe? And you knew it wouldn't but you did it anyway. Because you wanted revenge and because you thought making Talon think twice about hitting us was worth them not giving a second thought to hitting an entire city." She set the kettle back on the burner. Gabriel's mug and filter were all prepared but he did not touch it. "We're some of the most powerful people in the world, Gabriel. We can't just... go off and avenge people, no matter how bad they hurt us."

"I'd do it for you," Gabriel said, and that stopped her, because he was right. Gabriel talked a big game about how Blackwatch accomplished its mission by any means necessary, but whenever one of his loved ones was put in danger, everything else disappeared for him. She had seen him risk missions, risk his life, for Jack, for her. She would not be alive today if Gabriel did not love her as much as he did.

Ana prided herself on her instincts. She had excelled in the field in no small part because of how she could attune to every shifting gear in battle. Her gut never led her astray. But now, trying to imagine a situation where she would have to choose between Gabriel and Overwatch’s mission, Ana's gut was silent, and it terrified her. She knew she loved him and she knew she was furious with him and she did not know what she would do.

But she knew what she would want him to do if he were the one making the choice, and she could not trust him to give that to her. Not when he loved her so much.

Gabriel was watching her, waiting for her to respond. The kettle and her tea were growing cold.

"I know you would, Gabriel," she said softly. "And I love you. I do."

His whole body lightened at that, and he wrapped her up in a hug. She blinked against his shoulder.

"That's all I need," he said, and he sounded so relieved that she couldn't bear to respond. Wasn't it just like her, to humor his delusion.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to etwas_schlau and cur_non for betaing this!
> 
> I'm @tacticalgrandma on tumblr if you want to talk to me there. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would mean the world to me!


End file.
